'The Vampire Diaries' Recap: Elena Gives Up On Damon — But Only Because She Loves Him!

Elena tells Damon she doesn’t want to see him get hurt! So which brother is she really giving up on?

While last week’s season premiere of The Vampire Diaries was basically an hour-long love letter to fans of Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Elena’s (Nina Dobrev) rocky romance, the Sept. 22 episode was definitely more of a treat for those fans pining for her connection with Damon (Ian Somerhalder). She may gave “given up” on Damon this week, but we all know that was really just a lead-in for their intense final bedroom scene.

This week, Elena’s search for Stefan led her — along with Alaric (Matt Davis) and Damon — to the Tennessee mountains, where they encountered everyone’s favorite preacher’s kid-turned-werewolf-turned-hybrid, Ray Sutton (David Gallagher)! Unfortunately, when Ray was turned by Klaus (Joseph Morgan) he also went a little cray-cray, so he wasn’t exactly a sight for sore eyes. After biting Stefan, he went after Damon, who was ultimately saved by his little brother when he ripped Ray’s heart out — Mason-style.

Now, back to that whole “giving up” on Damon thing: When Elena first learned of Stefan’s whereabouts, Alaric tried to deter her from putting herself in harm’s way. But as Elena said, Stefan wouldn’t give up on her, so she had to save him. Now let’s fast forward to Ray’s attack on Damon: When Alaric told Elena it was too dangerous to stay on the mountain, she hesitated for a minute, but ultimately agreed and left Damon behind.

So did she totally give up on him?

Well, yes and no. Damon confronted Elena in her bedroom later that night — God, I love those scenes — and she said she only left the mountain because she didn’t want to see him get hurt. “I worry about you,” she told him. “Why do you even have to hear me say it?”

Those two — you just gotta love ’em.

In other relationship news, Tyler (Michael Trevino) came clean to his crazy mom about being a werewolf after she told him he couldn’t date Caroline (Candice Accola), because she was a “monster.” And while I’m surprised she had absolutely no idea about his furrier side, I suppose moms have the uncanny ability to overlook anything that would make their kid seem less than perfect.

Unfortunately for Tyler, his confession might not have been enough to save Caroline, who he also explained is “not a prostitute.” She’s still chained up in a basement, and about to be killed by a highly unlikely new foe — her dad, Bill (Jack Coleman, sans the horn-rimmed glasses)!

And how ’bout them ghosts? Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) told Matt (Zach Roerig) about Vicki’s (Kayla Ewell) plea for help, just as she visited him again and told him “I can come back.” But wait, Anna (Malese Jow) also came back and told Jeremy not to trust Vicki! So who should Jeremy trust — his dead vampire ex-girlfriend or his other dead vampire ex-girlfriend?

And where the heck is his live non-vampire girlfriend, Bonnie (Kat Graham)?